Rutgers' McCourty twins help strengthen cornerback depth

Jason McCourty remembered looking around the room last year and seeing all of the fresh, new faces at the cornerback position and thinking -- someone's going to need to show these guys the ropes.

Turns out it would be he and his brother.

"Everybody that was coming up was young," McCourty said yesterday. "Pretty much everyone else was a freshman. We would be in the back of the room, trying to teach them. There were six or seven corner just starting out, with one year of experience."

When discussing the Rutgers cornerback situation experience is a two-way street: While there's 60 combined games played worth of it with the McCourty twins at the starting positions, there isn't much else after that.

In fact, the only other cornerback who has spent as much time on the team as Devin and Jason is redshirt senior Billy Anderson. And he's only played in five games in his career.

That's why this training camp is so important -- not only is it needed to prepare for the upcoming season, but also to strengthen the cornerback corps.

"When you come into camp, you always want to try and build the depth with the freshman and the young guys that come," Devin McCourty said. "You've got guys like (sophomores) Brandon Bing and Robenson Alexis, that have been around the position for more than one year, so they're learning more."

The Scarlet Knights will need players like that to be ready to step up should one of the McCourty brothers go down with an injury, or even just to spell for a brief period during a game.

Jason says that between him and his brother, as well as senior safety Courtney Greene, leadership in the secondary is not lacking. It's also fostered an atmosphere where younger players can feel comfortable picking the brain of an older player.

"Now anybody can ask anybody questions," Devin said. "I've been around so long, that a young safety can come up to me and ask me something about safety that he's struggling with and I can help him out."

Bing, a redshirt sophomore, is one of the players that's benefited and grown his game under the tutelage of the McCourty's.

"I think he's had a steady climb," head coach Greg Schiano said of Bing. "Brandon was only a freshman last year, so he was forced into action before he was ready. I think now, he's getting a better understanding of his position and gaining more confidence."

It's not a role that Jason and Devin expected, but have relished in. They take pride and pleasure in grooming the next wave of cornerbacks to be ready now, not just down the line.

"I think he's (Schiano) looked to us to not only take over the secondary, but the defense as well," Devin said. "Mostly, I think to just watch when people are down, when people are tied and bring energy to the team. Bring passion that we play with, so we can just get everybody up and playing with enthusiasm.